Zombiemart — Part 2) Assault On Supermart 13
This is post #2 of 2 in the series “Zombiemart”
I watched the slowly spreading green mist for a moment as Bethany continued to tell me just how unpleasant she found the smell to be. The fog spread out slowly, hugging the ground as it did so. So it was heavier than air then. As the cloud grew, the stench grew stronger confirming the obvious connection between the two.
Several other blue clad employees appeared, no doubt also looking for the source of the smell. They hung around looking confused and useless, probably much like I was, until Maggie arrived to take charge. By this point the fog had grown noticeably, if still very slowly.
“When I find out which of you jokers did this, there will be hell to pay.” Maggie muttered, glaring at each of us in turn. “Now clean it up.”
I felt my mouth go dry. Sure it was probably just some sort of smoke bomb. That made sense, right? But my Spider-Sense was tingling. No, wizards don’t actually have a “spider-sense”. Shame, it would be useful.
“Now!” Maggie grabbed a brush and shoved it into the hands of the nearest person. I’m not quite sure what she thought he was going to be able to do with that. He didn’t really seem to know either, shuffling forward and half-heartedly pushing the brush into the smoke.
Which is when things went straight to hell. I watched as the dirty yellow mist swirled around the shaft of the brush and then surged up it and along the man’s arms. He cried out in surprise, dropping the brush, but by then the smoke was all over him. In seconds he was completely obscured from my sight. He coughed and flailed around trying to wave the gas away, but it didn’t work. Everyone stepped back in alarm.
It’s not very noble I realize, but if you had just seen this you wouldn’t be rushing forward either. Moments later the man slumped to the ground. or at least I assume he did because the smoke settled back down to floor level. We all stared at each other in shock. What was this?
I took a faltering step forward, thinking that I should pull the man out of that stuff, but then remembering what had just happened to him. I was trying to think of a discreet way to try and disperse the gas when the man rose to his feet again. This time the fog stayed swirling around his feet. But that didn’t give me much comfort.
There was a dead eyed look to the man’s stare as he moved towards me. He mouth hung open and I could see drool running down his chin. His movements were slow and strangely stiff, but he was coming towards me at a steady pace. I backed up nervously.
“Hey Dale, you okay man?” A concerned colleague reached out and touched the man’s shoulders. He turned slowly, his attention switching as he did so. I let go of the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. But my relief was short lived as Dale lunged awkwardly for his colleague, burying his teeth into the man’s shoulder and knocking him backward into the swirling fog.
That was when the screams started.
Almost as though it was reacting to Dale’s attack, the mist surged and spread out suddenly swirling around the feet of several more staff and spreading rapidly up their bodies. I already knew what was going to happen, I didn’t need to stand and watch.
Turning, I grabbed Bethany’s hand and pulled her into the narrow aisle between the racks. She let me pull her, but stared at me in shocked confusion.
“Climb.” I shouted. It’s possible I was just a little bit terrified at this point. I didn’t wait to see if she had understood me, I just started climbing the steel myself.
The racks are so close together that you can actually move from side to side like a ladder and that’s exactly what I did. Working quickly up to the second shelf and then turning round to make sure that Bethany was following. Repeating the process we climbed rapidly up to the fifth and final shelf, a good 20 feet off the ground.
Bethany looked pale and her breathing was ragged. I couldn’t tell if it was from the climb or what she had just witnessed. Fortunately the top shelf was relatively empty and I was able to walk along to the end to get a clear view of the scene below. It wasn’t pretty.
The green fog had now spread across most of the warehouse floor now and wandering amongst it with that stiff legged gate and those blank faces were at least a half dozen of my fellow Supermart 13 employees. As I studied the scene looking for any easy exits I heard screams that sounded like they were coming from the front of the store. Whatever was happening, it was spreading, and I was stuck on an island surrounded by that green fog.
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